Domestic automotive chip access standards and channels

On June 10, at the "Automotive Semiconductor Innovation Collaboration Forum" of the World Semiconductor Conference held in Nanjing, Chen Dawei, a researcher at the Institute of Electronics Standardization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, gave a wonderful presentation on the theme of "Standards and Paths for Access of Domestic Automotive Chips".

Chen Dawei, researcher at the Institute of Electronics Standardization of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

I will report to you in seven aspects:

background;

status quo;

standard;

Standards and their testing;

Risks of converting non-automotive chips to automotive applications;

Domestic automotive chip standard system;

Thoughts on promoting the application of domestic automotive chips.
   

1. Background

There are many requirements for automotive chips, including a wide temperature range, battery compatibility requirements, and corresponding IP requirements. Reliability, batch consistency, automotive requirements, supply cycle and joint liability are all special aspects of automotive chips.
   

Classification of automotive semiconductor chips. Actually, it is not easy to classify them, because as a mobile platform, various chips will be used in cars as they are used more and more. Our national high-tech special projects: "Research on key technologies for domestic automotive electronic chips" in 2012; "Research and development and industrial application of body controller chips" and "Research and development and industrialization of body electronic controller SOC chips" in 2014. 
   

This is the survey and certification statistics of domestic chips we conducted in May this year. I think there are very few that fully meet the AEC-Q100 standard in the true sense. Most of them have only completed some projects. Some companies say they have passed the 26262 certification, but in fact they only refer to the 26262 system certification, and have not yet achieved the 26262 certification of the chip.
   

2. Current status of domestic automotive semiconductor chip industry
 

Several pain points in the domestic automotive chip industry chain:

First, there are currently no basic requirements for domestic automotive chip access;

Second, there is still a large gap in understanding of standards such as 26262, ACE-Q100, 102, 103, and 104;

Third, the chip reliability design capabilities are still lacking in various companies; fourth, there are some problems with the process lines that meet the 16949 requirements;
   

3. Standard requirements for each stage of the entire automotive chip industry chain

The first stage is the design stage. At the very least, the requirements must be defined at the beginning, and the requirements for functions, performance indicators, etc. must be discussed with the vehicle. Next, there must be a reliability design process. Now there is the GB/T12750 standard, which stipulates the rules to be followed in chip design and production. Later, there was 26262. The 26262 standard is divided into two contents, one is for the system, and the other is for the safety certification of a certain chip. The production and manufacturing process must first meet the requirements of 16949 and your chip process, materials, and line width must correspond to the production line. This is the first point. The second point is to follow ACE-Q001 and 002 when signing the contract. It is difficult to claim that perfection is difficult to achieve, so it is achieved through the control of production process and the requirements of the corresponding processes. There are ACE-Q100, 001, 002, and 003 standards here. Not many people pay attention to these standards. Just pay attention to ACE-Q100. In fact, this is a detailed standard. After the tape-out, the next step is reliability certification. ACE-Q101 is for discrete devices, 102 is for LEDs, and 103 is the standard for TEMPCHIP.
   

Test items specified by the ACE-Q100 standard. This chip must pass all the standards to meet the ACE-Q100 standard. Of course, the standards can be screened, such as different packages and different power requirements. Some items can be omitted, but except for this, the others must pass before it can be claimed to meet ACE-Q100.
   

Suggestions for developing automotive chips.

Planning stage: performance functions meet the requirements of car manufacturers and Tier 1;

Design stage: Chip reliability design involves many EDA tool verification issues and know-how issues. These are all issues that need to be addressed during the design stage. Of course, there is also the 26262 system. Of course, if you really want to do it, you will have to invest a lot.

Mass production stage: production line TS16949 + screening AEC-Q001, 002, 003...;

Automotive certification: AEC-Q100 and other requirements.

For external organizations: exchange understanding of the ACE-Q100 standard, and then seek national CNAS capability certification. The CNAS capability certification is not a certificate, but a list behind it, which means that you are really capable of doing a certain experiment of the ACE-Q standard, including test content. All test items must be preceded and followed by three-temperature measurement + test + measurement. Only when Cpk is greater than 1.67, the standard will say that your experiment is an equivalent experiment. However, these are basically not available in China, so it is very important to have an accurate understanding of the standard.
   

4. AECQ100 Standard and Its Testing

AEC-Q100 can self-declare. 41 test items in 7 categories can be selected, but it is conditional. You can't do it if you want to, and don't do it if you don't want to. The same series of products can use common data to reduce test items. Three-temperature test before and after the reliability test. Some test items are determined by the user, such as EMC. It is decided by the user. It only talks about the test method, but not the limit value. Whether this limit value is suitable for the application environment of your car is determined by the user, not the test organization. For the leader, it is not rigorous to pass all AEC-Q100. In fact, a considerable part of the items are determined by the user. Is the HTOL stress appropriate? The plan should be open. The earliest requirement is that all transistors must be flipped, which can best expose the early failure of the chip. Of course, there are other requirements. There is no secret in AEC-Q100 test data. Some companies told me that our AEC-Q100 standard is confidential. Actually, this is not the case. It is a public test report. In order to prove to your customers or peers that there is no problem with your chip, you should openly tell everyone this standard from the first page to the last page to prove that there is no problem with the chip and that the chip is welcomed by vehicle manufacturers.
   

5. Risks of converting non-automotive-grade chips to automotive applications.

When designing, we did not consider the requirements of automotive regulations, and when producing, we did not select according to the principles of automotive chip screening. In the end, the functional indicators can meet the needs of the current car, and you just don’t have a suitable chip, so you use this one first, which will have some risks. I have always emphasized that chips are designed and produced, not tested, so you do a series of tests according to the AEC-Q100 standard. Even if you pass it by chance, it cannot prove that your chip will really be zero-defect in a few years. There is a warranty period of more than ten years. If we must do this, we must classify the use risk level of the chip according to different occasions, and do a good job of controlled use, good identification and final traceability. The chip needs to be further improved in tape-out.
   

6. Domestic automotive chip standard system

In fact, I am considering the automotive requirements based on the existing Chinese integrated circuit standard system. AEC-Q100 is a very basic entry point for automotive access, not the highest standard. We have established an automotive electronic components standards working committee to formulate basic AEC-Q100 standards in the future. If you are interested, you can scan my QR code to join our standards working committee.
   

Automotive Electronic Components Standard Working Committee. The problem of automobiles is not just the lack of chips, so semiconductors, discrete devices, modules, MEMS sensors, passive components, integrated circuits including IP boxes, processes, packaging, etc. will all be considered in the standard system.
   

This is a joint effort by the China Electronics Standards Association under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the China Society of Automobile Manufacturers.
   

In May 2020, we made a catalog of automotive electronic innovation products, which was a catalog of automotive chips. In May last year, there was a table from the catalog information. We will continue to do it this year. Last year, this catalog was not officially released due to the COVID-19 factor, but there is an electronic version. If you are interested, please contact me and I can give you the electronic version.
   

The sponsors are the China Integrated Circuit Design Innovation Alliance, the Shanghai Brake Branch of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and the Shanghai Society of Automotive Engineering. We will continue to do this this year, and the 2021 edition will be released at the innovation event in Suzhou on July 15 this year. If you are interested in putting your company's products in it, you can scan this QR code, which also contains a table, and you can put your company's product content in it, all of which are free.
   

7. Thoughts on promoting the application of domestic automotive chips

1. Carry out chip reliability design technology training;

2. Promote the automotive quality system standard 16949 in the wafer and packaging links;